Day 77 &78; 28th and 29th August 2017.... We're in the Med!

After deciding to leave Arles in the morning and get groceries in Port St Louis du Rhone we dropped our lines and motored along a hazy Rhone.

Patrick dug out the French Mediterranean pilot book and informed me that the bridge at the lock into Port St Louis only opens at certain times, and that if we didn't make the 11:50 opening we would have to wait another 4 hours until 4pm for it to open. A quick calculation told us that it was going to be VERY tight. In the end we made it with 5 minutes to spare, which was quite good timing as the Danes later told us they had to wait for 2 hours and there was nowhere to moor to wait.

So, we were in the Mediterranean, well almost.

We decided to stop in Port St Louis for a night and pick up shopping before heading round to Port Napoleon. The kids were happy to see the Danes again and we also met up with the guys on the McGregor we had seen earlier in our trip. I did an initial shop to top up on dry stores while Patrick hid from the heat with the kids. Later the kids went swimming while Patrick helped sort the sails out on the McGregor.



There was another Danish boat there who received a delivery of new anchor chain... ever the opportunists we managed to procure his old 2m + 3.5m lengths of chain for our kedge in return for 2 cold beers. Result!

Next morning we picked up a couple of canisters of diesel as well as more groceries and then motored off towards Port Napoleon. This took out into the Mediterranean before heading back in, only an hour but we could definitely appreciate the swell of the ocean.

The channel seemed quite narrow on the way in and was well buoyed by markers as well as what we thought were withies but on closer inspection turned out to be fishing rods!

On arrival the kids and I set to work making lunch while Patrick went to have a look round up top. He found DMS engineering firm who said they could sort our seacock out next week... should cost about 200 Euro labour plus the lift out and materials. This seemed quite a good price for peace of mind!

After lunch we all went up top to the Captainere, booked ourselves in and learned we just need to give a couple of days notice for mast up and lift outs. The lady also told us where to find our masts so off we went to check them. Once we had found them we declared it too hot to work so went back to the boat where I waged war on the kids cabin while Patrick started to get the boat ready to receive her masts again.

After an early tea we all went up top to unwrap the masts. It had cooled off a little and most tradesmen had gone home so we allowed the kids to bring scooters which they zoomed around on whilst Patrick and I worked. After an hour or so we had done pretty much all we could. The only bit of damage appears to the connector for the tricolour at the top of the mast. I think I have a spare so that's another job for tomorrow.

When we called the kids I'm not sure what Esmé had been doing but she was absolutely filthy so after dumping the scooters on Laurin and picking up wash kits we went to sample the lovely showers up top.




On the way back Esmé looked at the moon and asked if Nana could see the same moon.... I think she's a little homesick at the moment and both kids have been playing up, perhaps due to the transition between canals and sea! (I assured her that Nana could see the same moon and that we would send Nana a picture of it just to make sure!)



It's a bit of a strange place here, very definitely a working boatyard with a larger variety of crafts, but not too much for the kids to do (there is half built playground but this won't be finished before we leave). I'm sure we will find fun for the kids though, we've the dinghy to pump up and an outboard to check over as well as our other inflatables to play on. Also we learned today that another boat family are on their way down to visit their Dad who is working on their new boat here. They should arrive late tomorrow so think we've got a play date on Thursday.



So, off to bed for another sticky night with the hatches closed trying to avoid the mosquitos!